“They will drag your family and your faith into the lies and the vitriol. If you are a woman, it will be worse.

“It is no consolation to know that any journalist or commentator who gives you a fair hearing will suffer the same.

“This is the poison some have brought into our politics and it is vile.”

Mark MacLachlan had to resign as constituency aide to education minister Mike Russell after smearing Labour politicians online two years ago.

Meanwhile, cybernat Alan Clayton suggested tragic Labour activist Danus McKinlay, a close pal of shamed Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell, had been taking crack cocaine before his death in 2010.

A visibly angry Gray said the SNP had to work to stop the poisonous nature of the attacks.

He said: “It is time we started talking openly about it and it is time the SNP did something about it because they know who some of these people are. This is not how you build a better Scotland and Scotland deserves better.

“But those who bring light suffer burning. I say to the leadership candidates, ‘You will stand up to it and you should be proud to do so.’”

Gray also urged the SNP to declare the date of their independence referendum and the questions asked.

He said: “The SNP have a mandate for a referendum and we accept that.

“But they have an obligation to do that with clarity and we should hold them to that.”